SEO and Site Redesign

What is the importance of SEO during a site redesign?

One survey found that 94 percent of subjects reported design elements when discussing reasons why they did not trust a particular website. To build trust with your customers, you need to make sure that your design communicates quality and trust to your customers.

At the same time, our own research at BrightEdge has found that 51 percent of traffic to websites arrives through organic search. That means SEO is the main tool for getting visitors on your page so that you have the opportunity to build that important trust with them.

When you are redesigning your site, you have an excellent opportunity to add SEO elements throughout your site to ensure that your new-and-improved web property is attractive to search engines and customers alike.

What are the first SEO elements I need to consider?

SEO needs to be a part of the site redesign process from the beginning. Navigation, URLs, folders and the layout of the site should all be optimized.

Name URLs using keywords

Make navigation, folders and layout all intuitive and common sense

Include meta descriptions on all web pages

Markup your pages with schema to ensure maximum visibility to the search engines

What SEO elements do I need to consider as I begin to add content?

As you add content to the site, you will need to make sure that you are still placing the needs of the user first. This means using data to research topics and keywords that will guide your content. It also means including high-quality images with keyword-centric alt text. This alt text tells the search engine what the image is and the value it has to offer users.

What SEO elements do I need to consider after I finish my redesign?

SEO and site redesign are living things-- they are continually growing, maturing and changing. Although you have finished this site redesign, you need to be ready to come back to the project in the future as technology and trends change the best ways to meet the needs of customers.

To see how your current site is performing, you should always be monitoring traffic and bounce rates as well as customers’ movements around the site. Compare behavior before and after the redesign to see if your efforts have improved the customer experience.

A site redesign is a great time to really incorporate SEO elements into the web property to maximize your exposure to customers. Keep these SEO concepts in mind as you begin your project and remember to always focus your efforts on making things easier and more intuitive for the customer.